Creature Discomforts

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So, while I was waiting on Derick at the SR404 Gallery in downtown Johnson City, TN to talk about a potential show, I got to look around and see the Creature Discomforts exhibition, which features the work of Colleen Wallace and Ralph Slatton. Wallace recently graduated from ETSU and Slatton is a professor in the art department.

Jason Newland briefly touched on this show in his previous post, but I felt like it deserved some more attention. Don't get too excited. I took a bunch of crappy photographs.

SR404 Gallery is partnered with Stay True Tattoo, a relatively new (2 years?) shop downtown and a pulse point for local arts. They've had art shows and live music on multiple occasions. Admittedly, I've never really attended because 1.) tattoo parlors are not usually very inviting places because they're full of people who think they are cooler than everyone else and 2.) Stay True/SR404 does not advertise well.

Although I got a little bit of that vibe upon entering Stay True, it may have been me projecting my discomfort because they were pretty friendly. An alpha male in the bunch even texted Derick to see if he was on his way before I walked my little swollen feet all the way back home. What a tattooed sweetie.

Slatton was one of my professors and was on my committee for my BFA show. I'm pretty sure everyone has a soft spot for him, and he's a talented printmaker as well. You should see some of his "sketches". They're much better than anything I will ever draw. This skill is evident in his prints, which depict animals in dire, horrific, and yet comical situations. Mostly dogs and fuzzy little bunnies. For this reason, my mom would not like them and they are difficult to look at long enough to attempt interpretation. No one likes to see a dog missing his or her back legs, tied to a wheel, appearing to be in pain and duress.

So, you decide to chew or spit it out. As for me, I've been known to swallow a lot of things that I probably shouldn't. And I would recommend that you risk having an introspective moment for the sake of really seeing Slatton's prints. The line quality, the subtle moments that combine to create the composition, atmosphere, and mystery. And then you might catch some of the humor. The gritty, sticky humor.

As for Wallace, I'm less acquainted with her and her work. Basically, in case you couldn't tell from the photographs, Wallace has similar qualities to Slatton, except Wallace's work strikes me as being much more whimsical. It has a child's fairy tale feeling to it, pre-Disney. The rabbits are not grotesque. They seem tragic. And something about the tragedy seems close to home.

Of course, that Something is for each individual viewer to specifically articulate. I can only guess, and continue to ponder the matter.

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